


What Didn't Happen

by alienstereotype



Series: TLBD (Extended Universe) [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Gen, Mentions of non-consensual marking, Werewolf Mates, Werewolves, au where things are slightly less fucked up than canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 17:56:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12687297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alienstereotype/pseuds/alienstereotype
Summary: Nathan vaguely knew the people who took over the Moonstone territory were shady, but his uncle died there, so it's not like he wanted to poke that wound.He wishes he had, though.Another version of him would have followed his instincts, wouldn't have ignored the bloodstain on alpha Jared's sweater. Another version of him would have found Asha before she learned to hate him.But that's not what happened.





	What Didn't Happen

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this cause I was sad, there's some stuff here that I'm gonna to touch in the actual timeline.

To say Nathan was surprised was a huge understatement. In fact, if you asked him how he thought he would meet his soul mate, his answer would've been a boring "Maybe in a park? On a sunny day, please. Or an interpack meeting, that would be cool”. Having their first meeting in a cell, his mate chained and filthy, hadn’t even crossed his mind. 

Yet here they were.

She was a skinny beige wolf, small and wounded and staring at him as if he were about to devour her alive. A fair reaction, really, considering who her alpha was.

The first time he noticed something unusual about Jared was months ago, during a reunion between representatives of four neighboring packs to the east of his own territory. There had been an odd increase in wendigo activity in the area and Jared seemed a little too eager to dismiss the evidence.

Nathan took him for a coward in denial, not a monster in disguise.

The second time had been a weird feeling, caused by the faint smell of blood on Jared's sweater. He had brushed it off as well, cheap violence always stressed him, and the uneasiness was gone almost as fast as it started; Nathan now realized the scent had come from this girl, who was so scared that she barely let him remove the chains binding her paws to the ground.

She whimpered when he came closer, too weak to attack even though, despite the fear, she seemed to want to. He could see the fire in her eyes and an unexpected feeling of pride flared in his chest. So this was what having a mate felt like.

"I'm not here to hurt you" he said, trying to keep his voice as low as possible.

She crawled to the far end of the cell, back against the walls in the corner even though they were lined with silver. How she managed to stay in wolf form in an environment like that was a mystery.

He took a step back, crouching and hunching his shoulders to make himself look as small as he could. He offered her a hand. 

"I'm Nathan, Second of the Brink Point pack." No reaction "Can you shift?"

She hesitated and her golden eyes seemed to pierce his very soul, accusing him of something he didn't understand. As impressive as her defiance under these conditions was, it didn't make sense for her to be so suspicious, even hostile. They were mates and, from all he's ever heard, this was the opposite of how first meetings went.

His grandparents had gone out for a pizza for their first date, instantly after they bumped on the street. His sister had already been dating her mate for months when her wolf genes kicked in. Even Mason, who had decided to only act on it when his mate was a wolf as well, seemed to have Collin’s love long before the bond manifested itself.

And Nathan’s mate was glaring at him.

“Please, I just wanna talk.” He tried again, gathering all his patience and just waiting for her to do something.

For a long time, the silent protests of his knees against his unnatural crouching position were the only new thing. Her complete stillness made the wolf part of him ache to touch, to check if she was alright, or even if she was a real living being instead of an apparition. Then he heard the first crack.

It was painful to watch, a little similar to how his very first transformation had been, with zero control and a lot of unnecessary fractures. She didn’t seem like an A Type, why didn't she know how to make shifting fast and painless?

He sat back, waited some more until her growls finally turned into grunts.

His mate settled at last, heaving and curled up in a ball as if just turning had taken the last drops of energy she had, as if it was all still hurting even though he knew the usual feeling after a shift like that was relief. 

Something in her thigh caught his eye: five dark lines that could only be claw marks. The same pattern was repeated on her hips and arms, most of them a little faded or small, but undeniably there. 

When she finally seemed strong enough to sit, his brain couldn't even register her nudity as something sexual. Bruises soiled her light brown skin, staining her ribs with purple, red and yellow, and making him wonder how all of that even happened.

His previous concern with the normality of first meetings seemed so petty now.

"What's your name?" He asked, somehow finding his voice despite the emotions that swelled in his throat.

The girl shook her head, face covered by a long tangle of wavy hair, dark eyes still sizing him up through the strands. 

"You don't have a name or you don't want to tell me?" At this point, he wouldn’t be surprised if her reply was a series of numbers.

His mate took a deep breath.

"Asha." She said, quickly and almost resigned, and he would've missed her raspy voice if every cell of his body wasn't currently focused on her.

"Asha." He tried, liking the way it sounded and the way she seemed to relax, if only slightly, after he said it. "You're safe now."

 

* * *

 

 

"You're safe now." The man said, and she would've laughed if she weren't so confused. Had Jared grown so bored he decided to play games with her?

"Why are you here?" She pushed her voice through the dryness of her throat. His green eyes seemed to light up at the chance to have an actual conversation.

"My pack's territory is close.” Then he seemed to consider his own words “Not that close, I mean. I’m here cause we found out this pack has been forming alliances with some Goners." He stared at her with a different intensity then "Do you know something about that?

He would probably know if she lied "I deal with the numbers for Jared."

"Then why were you locked here?" Nathan asked, moving closer as if her confessed involvement with the alpha of this pack didn't bother him.

Her senses were usually numbed down in this cell, but now he was close enough for her to realize that, despite being roughly his size, his maroon hoodie didn’t fully smell like him.

"Why are you shirtless?" She asked.  A dumb question and none of her business, but he didn’t seem to mind. A bitter smile formed on his face when he dug into his pocket for what seemed to be a scrap of fabric.

The torn, folded shirt smelled mostly like Nathan's blood and sweat, but there were traces of Jared and some other members of her pack in there too. The knowledge made her hands shake while she handed it back to him.

"You fought him?" It was more high-pitched than she'd like to admit "And won?"

He nodded "I guess I'd be dead if I lost, right?" And it was true for almost everyone who ever crossed Jared's path, though Asha didn't have such luck "Why are you here?"

"Is he dead?" Her voice cracked as she stared at Nathan for the first time, exposing her face in the process.

The moment he noticed the nasty silver burn on her left cheek was obvious even though he didn't say anything. She swallowed her anger, tilted her head to let her hair cover the scar again. The last thing she needed right now was this man’s judgment, or worse: his pity.

"He's locked." Nathan sighed, glanced at his bare feet.

"He should be dead" Her voice was as heavy as the statement.

"It's not my decision to make." He shrugged, then focused back on her. She was reminded of the fact that she was naked when his eyes seemed to get glued to her own. "Why are you here?"

Again, she saw no point in lying.

"Insubordination." Asha pulled her hair back, letting Nathan see the healing wound among the scars on the crook of her neck, where mate marks usually went. "Jared thinks…” her voice died at the memory of her alpha’s most recent attempt at forcing a bond between them. She couldn’t describe it out loud, so she sugarcoated it to herself. “He’s quite persistent." There was no humor in the smirk that accompanied the words.

There was no doubt that this man was her mate, the real deal. Asha knew that with every fiber of her being from the moment he walked into her cell, and he was obviously aware of it too. At first she had thought either Jared or Mitchell were behind that, somehow, but now… a small, foolish part of her had started to hope.

She thought it best to come clean now, let him lash out and condemn her, or simply walk away, she could deal with rejection and aggression. However, Nathan's lack of reaction made her feel anxious, like waiting for a bomb to go off.

She crossed her arms, avoided his gaze. The unmistakable scent of anger finally filled her cell.

"I'm sorry." Asha said. Being ready to deal with it didn’t mean it hurt any less. She couldn’t blame him, though. As Mitchell once said, no one would want a second hand for a mate. “I know you probably expect-”

Her own gasp interrupted the words; Nathan moved towards her with an abruptness that made her flinch while her heart ached out of rhythm in her chest. Maybe she had expected a slap, she didn't quite know, suddenly incapable of processing her own thoughts while his arms tightened around her instead.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that." Nathan whispered into her cheek, gentle hands stroking her shoulders and hair, making her whole body feel warm as his steady voice released tension she'd been carrying for years. "It won't ever happen again"

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe I'll add more chapters to this eventually, but this one stands on its own, so... maybe nah.


End file.
